Thought leader, visionary, philanthropist, mystic, and yogi Sadhguru presents Western readers with a time-tested path to achieving absolute well-being: the classical science of yoga.
The practice of hatha yoga, as we commonly know it, is but one of eight branches of the body of knowledge that is yoga. In fact, yoga is a sophisticated system of self-empowerment that is capable of harnessing and activating inner energies in such a way that your body and mind function at their optimal capacity. It is a means to create inner situations exactly the way you want them, turning you into the architect of your own joy.
A yogi lives life in this expansive state, and in this transformative book Sadhguru tells the story of his own awakening, from a boy with an unusual affinity for the natural world to a young daredevil who crossed the Indian continent on his motorcycle. He relates the moment of his enlightenment on a mountaintop in southern India, where time stood still and he emerged radically changed. Today, as the founder of Isha, an organization devoted to humanitarian causes, he lights the path for millions. The term guru, he notes, means “dispeller of darkness, someone who opens the door for you. . . . As a guru, I have no doctrine to teach, no philosophy to impart, no belief to propagate. And that is because the only solution for all the ills that plague humanity is self-transformation. Self-transformation means that nothing of the old remains. It is a dimensional shift in the way you perceive and experience life.” The wisdom distilled in this accessible, profound, and engaging book offers readers time-tested tools that are fresh, alive, and radiantly new. Inner Engineering presents a revolutionary way of thinking about our agency and our humanity and the opportunity to achieve nothing less than a life of joy.
Praise for Sadhguru and Inner Engineering
“Contrarian and consistent, ancient and contemporary, Inner Engineering is a loving invitation to live our best lives and a profound reassurance of why and how we can.”—Sir Ken Robinson, author of The Element, Finding Your Element, and Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative
“I am inspired by Sadhguru’s capacity for joy, his exuberance for life, and the depth and breadth of his curiosity and knowledge. His book is filled with moments of wonder, awe, and intellectual challenge. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in self-transformation.”—Mark Hyman, M.D., director, Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, and New York Times bestselling author
“Inner Engineering is a fascinating read of Sadhguru’s insights and his teachings. If you are ready, it is a tool to help awaken your own inner intelligence, the ultimate and supreme genius that mirrors the wisdom of the cosmos.”—Deepak Chopra
A book to be studied, not read, to engineer your life Yesterday I cut two oranges to juice for my morning smoothie. As I was juicing one of them, I heard myself say, “This orange is BAD. It’s so dry.”Option 1: “It’s so dry I’m getting less than a quarter cup. Instead of needing only two oranges, I’m going to have to juice four. What a ripoff. I’m paying double for oranges. And now I have to go to the store to get more oranges. What if they’re bad, too?”Option 2: “It is what it is: a dry orange. I’ll just have to juice four instead of two. Better get another bag of oranges.”Sadhguru writes, “…whatever the events and situations around you, you don’t get crushed by them; you ride them.” And, “To mold situations the way you want them you must first know who you are. The crux of the matter is that you don’t yet know who you are. Who you are is not the sum total of accumulations you have made. Everything that you currently know as ‘myself’ is just an accumulation. Your body is just an accumulation of food. Your mind is just an accumulation of impressions gathered through the five senses. What you accumulate can be yours, but it can never be you… You are trying to live your life through what you have gathered, not through who you are. What’s more, you are not even a hundred percent conscious of what you have gathered!”That’s what this book is about. It’s about understanding your true, divine self and that everything that happens to you happens internally. Most people go through life letting external events dictate who they are and how they should feel. They spend most of their time in memories of the past or in imaginal futures, usually of a bad kind. Instead of eating from the Tree of Life, we eat continually from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and make judgments based on where our experience falls. The dry orange is evil. We also tend to discontinue growth and solidify over time as we acquire beliefs: “Belief is just like morality. People who believe something often think they are superior to others. All that happens the moment you believe something is that your stupidity acquires confidence.” This is so true. The more I learn about something, the more I realize how ignorant I am.”Every thought that arises in the mind has its roots in data you have already accumulated. The data may be gathered consciously or unconsciously…your intellect is perpetually immersed in the past. In such a state, nothing new is now possible. And so, the intellect loses its edge and becomes a trap.” And, “The very seat of your experience is within you, but your perception is entirely outward bound.”So what is yoga and how does it help us evolve? I’ll let the author answer.”…the fundamental desire within every human being is for boundless expansion… When their longing finds conscious expression, we call this yoga.”"The science of yoga is, quite simply, the science of being in perfect alignment, in absolute harmony, in complete sync with existence…yoga is the science of creating inner situations exactly the way you want them.”"When you are in yoga, it means that in your experience, everything has become one. This is the essence of the science. This is also its deepest aim.”"Yoga is fundamentally aimed at enhancing your experience beyond the five senses.”"So in yoga, we learn to trust the body. We transform the physical body from a series of compulsions of flesh, blood, and hormones into a conscious process, a powerful instrument of perception and knowing.”"The entire yogic process is aimed at aligning oneself with the natural longing of life to expand in an unlimited way… Yoga means to experience the mental and physical process distinctly, not as the basis of yourself, but as that which is caused by you.”"So the quality of your life is always decided by how you experience life, not by what life offers you.”"The yogic practices, which involve postures, breath, attitudes of mind, and energy activation, are all essentially oriented toward aligning the first three layers of the body: the physical, the mental, and the energetic body. It is only in aligning them that you find access to dimensions beyond the physical–to the fundamental life energy itself.”Two years ago I basically hit rock bottom. Life seemed ridiculous and futile. I knew I had to do something or I would have to leave the planet. I didn’t want to be here. So I began studying New Thought writings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I spent hours every day studying, meditating, thinking, disciplining my mind. I changed my negative thoughts into positive thoughts. I transformed myself, and I continue because I have a long way to go. I used to look back on my life and think, “What a crappy…
Good takeaways.
Fascinating and Educational